Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive believes an alleged kidnapping case is distracting people from the plight of more than a million Haitians suffering in the streets.

The U.S. and Haitian governments are holding talks on the fate of 10American missionaries accused of illegally trying to take children outof the quake-hit Caribbean country, U.S. Secretary of State HillaryClinton said on Wednesday.Haitian authorities said they woulddecide today whether to pursue a case against the missionaries, whowere arrested on Friday trying to cross into the Dominican Republicwith a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the quake.InWashington, Clinton said for the first time the two governments werediscussing the case, diplomatically sensitive because the U.S. isheading a massive relief operation after the earthquake wrecked thecapital, Port-au-Prince, and killed up to 200,000 people.TheState Department, which has been at pains to avoid any impression itmight be interfering in the matter, said Tuesday it had not beeninvolved in any broad discussions about the missionaries' case or anypossible prosecution.The accused missionaries vehemently denythey were engaged in child trafficking. They said they were just tryingto help some of the thousands of orphans left destitute and abandonedby the quake."It was unfortunate, whatever the motivation, that this group of Americans took matters into their own hands," Clinton said.

Haitian officials said the detained Americans, most of whom belong to anIdahobased Baptist church, had no documents proving the children wereorphans and no official permission to take them out of the country,which meant the group faced possible kidnapping charges.Themissionaries were questioned by a judge Tuesday and Wednesday, theprosecutor in the case, Mazarre Fortil, said. "Tomorrow, my decisionwill be known. Tomorrow, everybody will know what we decide," Fortilsaid.Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said on Wednesday the case was stealing attention from the plight of Haitians.

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